Scientists first came up with the clock during the development of nuclear weapons in the 1940s

The Future of Humanity Institute (FHI), which is part of the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University, has advised world leaders to club together and put the brakes on an imminent global catastrophe.

It sounds like a crackpot conspiracy theory, but a group of scientists have been researching several risks to humanity, and believe now is the time to act.

Professor Nick Bostrom, defines an existential risk as one "where an adverse outcome would either annihilate Earth-originating intelligent life or permanently and drastically curtail its potential".

He has found that three of the most pressing risks are pandemic diseases, like Zika or Ebola, extreme climate change and nuclear war.

"But too much planning is still national, and little attention is paid to worst-case scenarios including risks from deliberately engineered pathogens."

Piers Millett, a biosecurity expert at the Future of Humanity Institute, added: "A recent survey of the views of national technical experts on biological weapons highlighted a dire need for broader and more sustained international focus on identifying and managing the research most readily applied to causing deliberate harm."

But there's still hope.

If leaders from across the world unite, we should be able to narrowly dodge a global catastrophe.

"International cooperation on global risks is more important than ever," added Farquhar.